Heroin Related deaths have quadrupled in America within the last three years.

A large haul of heroin that was seized from a house in Runda Estate in Nairobi, is displayed onFebruary 14, 2013. The drug was brought in from Tanzania and was destined for the United Kingdom after repackaging at the house, police said. Three suspects were arrested at the house in connection with the drug and police said that the three will be arraigned in court. AFP PHOTO/STRINGER (Photo credit should read -/AFP/Getty Images)

Kenyan police officers display bags of heroin on March 25, 2011 at the Wilson airport in Nairobi after the drug was flown in from the coastal city of Mombasa. Kenyan police officers seized 432 pounds (196 kilograms) of heroin and arrested six people including two Iranians and a Pakistani citizen during a raid on an apartment complex in Mombasa early today. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime says corruption makes East Africa a conduit for trafficking of drugs to Europe and North America. AFP PHOTO / Tony KARUMBA (Photo credit should read TONY KARUMBA/AFP/Getty Images)

In this Jan. 26, 2015 photo, an opium grower shows how he "milks" a poppy flower bulb to obtain opium paste in the Sierra Madre del Sur mountains of Guerrero state, Mexico. The Sinaloa cartel farms out most production of opium paste to smaller traffickers, according to growers, law enforcement and drug-trafficking experts interviewed by the AP. That kind of decentralized system is a recipe for setting Guerrero's small, feuding drug gangs, the Rojos, Pelones, Guerreros Unidos and others, against each other. Since 2012, Guerrero has been Mexico's most violent state. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

An anti-narcotics agent holds a machete as he prepares to hack open packages of cocaine before they're burned on the outskirts of Panama City, Friday, Dec. 5, 2014. According to police, on Friday they'll destroy just over 11 tons of cocaine, marijuana and heroin, seized within the last three months. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)

Powder flies as an anti-narcotics agent hacks open a package of cocaine with a machete before it's burned on the outskirts of Panama City, Friday, Dec. 5, 2014. According to police, they'll destroy on Friday just over 11 tons of cocaine, marijuana and heroin, seized within the last three months. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)

FILE - In this March 11, 2009 file photo, bags of confiscated cocaine are shown at the office of the Guinean drug enforcement agency in Conakry, Guinea. The Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012 arrest in Cameroon of a Nigerian allegedly carrying heroin highlights what officials say is a growing problem of drug trafficking in Central Africa. The neighboring region of West Africa has already become established as a stepping-stone to Europe for South American traffickers, according to a report issued in July by regional Interpol officials. According to them, the bulging seizures confirm that Central Africa is not only fast becoming a South American drug passageway, but also a consumption base. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File)

Seized weapons, cash and drugs photographs are on display Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011 at Tempe Police Dept., in Tempe, Ariz. Tempe Police Dept and the DEA were announcing a 15-month long investigation with the DEA that led to the dismantling and and take down of a trafficking cell associated with the Sinaloa Cartel. Authorities announcing the 15-month-long investigation said that although the Sinaloa cartel almost immediately regenerates after one of its cells have been taken down, their investigation certainly struck a blow. (AP Photo/Matt York).

In this Jan. 30, 2014 photo provided by New York City's Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor, an oven loaded with bricks of heroin is located in a Bronx apartment during a police raid of the location. According to prosecutors it was a sophisticated operation, where workers with coffee grinders and scales toiled around the clock to break down bricks of heroin into thousands of tiny, hit-sized baggies, bearing such stamped brands as "Government Shutdown" and "NFL." Last week's seizure of of 33 pounds of the narcotic was only the latest in a string of apartment heroin operation busts in New York, which has long been known as the nation's capital of smack. (AP Photo/Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor)

In this April 14, 2014 photo provided by the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor for the City of New York, a close-up of some of the crystal meth seized during a raid on a New York City apartment is shown. Agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration arrested three suspects in a major drug bust that netted more than $12 million in heroin and $500,000 in crystal meth inside hidden compartments within two New York City apartments. Authorities said the drugs were intended for distribution in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and other locations. (AP Photo/Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor for the City of New York) -----

Up Next

See Gallery

Discover More Like This

of

SEE ALL

BACK TO SLIDE

SHOW CAPTION
+

HIDE CAPTION
–

(Reuters) - One evening last November, a handful of policemen in Kenya's sweltering port city of Mombasa were handpicked to help in the final stages of a U.S.-led drugs sting that spanned three continents.

The target was a mansion in the wealthy beach suburb of Nyali. The policemen were banned from using their mobile phones and the names of the men they wanted kept from them until two hours before the raid. Secrecy was deemed vital in a region known for its corruption.

The quarry that night were the alleged leaders of the "Akasha organization." The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) had spent years infiltrating Akasha and alleges that the gang is part of a heroin supply chain that stretches from the poppy fields of Afghanistan through east Africa to the cities of Europe and the United States.

Inside a mansion girded by palm trees and a two-meter cobblestone wall, police captured the alleged leader of the crime syndicate, Baktash Akasha, his brother Ibrahim, and two other men. Kenyan police charged them with trafficking narcotics to the United States. Prosecutors in the United States subsequently indicted all four on charges including conspiracy to import heroin.

In documents filed in a court in the Southern District of New York on Nov. 10, the U.S. prosecutors alleged that the Akasha organization was responsible for the "production and distribution" of large quantities of narcotics in Kenya, Africa and beyond.

All the men deny the Kenyan charges and are fighting a U.S. request to have them extradited. Instead, they want their case heard in Kenya.

The raid was part of a wider effort by the DEA and Kenya to counter the growing power of drug cartels operating in east Africa. But while the raid was a success, the story of the operation highlights the many hurdles to slowing drug flows: corruption, porous land borders, poor maritime surveillance and a weak judiciary.

The operation, revealed in court documents and interviews, came at a crucial time. Law enforcement agencies are worried that a record opium harvest in Afghanistan will flood global heroin markets this year. The United Nations reported Afghan opium cultivation rose 7 percent in 2014. Western drug agencies are worried this will grow further following the withdrawal of all British and many American troops from Afghanistan.

Western officials are concerned that increased drug trafficking in east Africa could destabilize the region. They fear a repeat of what happened on the other side of Africa in Guinea-Bissau, which has been flooded with South American drugs. The United States has called that west African country Africa's first "narco state."

Most Europe-bound Afghan heroin still goes through the established "Balkan route" via Iran and southeast Europe. But a spate of seizures along the Kenyan and Tanzanian coastline over the past few years points to a switch to a "southern route" via Africa.

Short of funds and anti-trafficking expertise, east African countries rely on the Combined Maritime Force (CMF) to go after drug traffickers. While the 30-nation naval force was set up to protect busy shipping lanes from Somali pirates, it is intercepting more and more drug deliveries. Last year it seized 3.4 tonnes of heroin, a 66 percent increase on 2013.

To help, Western law enforcement agencies are stepping up operations in east Africa and countries closer to Afghanistan. The DEA says it plans to re-open its office in Karachi, Pakistan, to work with DEA agents in Nairobi and with Pakistani authorities.

Britain, which estimates it is the destination for about 20 percent of the heroin shipped through east Africa, has also stepped up its presence in the region.

"Now it is not just about us here in Kenya," Hamisi Masa, the head of Kenya's elite Anti-Narcotics Unit, told Reuters. "The whole world is concerned."

THE FAMILY BUSINESS

The Akasha family has been involved in the drug trade for years, Western diplomats allege.

In the 1990s, the clan was led by Baktash's father Ibrahim. U.S. Embassy cables published by WikiLeaks describe Ibrahim Akasha as a drug baron. "The Akasha family long controlled drugs (then mostly hashish, heroin, cannabis) along Mombasa to Europe," said a cable dated Jan. 9, 2006.

In 2000, Ibrahim Akasha was killed in a drive-by shooting in Amsterdam's Red Light district, according to the cables. That dented the business and split the family. Baktash and his half-brother Nurdin, better known as Tinta, Ibrahim's son with another of his wives, accused each other of murder plots against the family.

Tinta could not be reached for comment.

The DEA had been monitoring the Akashas for years, according to Cliff Ombeta, a lawyer representing the Akashas in Kenya.

By 2014, when the agency began the operation to catch the Akashas, Baktash had taken over the family business. A burly man with a receding hairline, he had built close links with major Pakistani heroin traffickers, the DEA alleges.

One such contact, the U.S. indictment states, was Gulam Hussein, also known as the "Old Man." Hussein had lived on and off in Kenya since 2012. The indictment describes him as "the head of a transportation network that distributes massive quantities of narcotics throughout the Middle East and Africa."

Another alleged contact was Vijaygiri Goswami, an Indian businessman who had spent more than a decade in a Dubai jail for drug trafficking offences. Goswami is married to 1990s Bollywood star Mamta Kulkarni and had built business empires in Zambia and South Africa.

Goswami and Hussein were captured with the Akasha brothers in the Mombasa raid. As well as the heroin charges, U.S. prosecutors have charged the Akashas and Goswami with conspiracy to import methamphetamines, according to the indictment in the New York court.

None of the men have pleaded to the U.S. charges, according to Daniel Arshack, a New York-based lawyer for Goswami. He said he was confident all four men will not be extradited. "We have no reason to believe that the allegations in the U.S. indictment are supported by facts," he said.

PRIVATE JET

According to U.S. court documents and to Kenyan lawyer Ombeta, who represents not just the Akashas but also Goswami and Hussein, the DEA sting started in March last year.

Ombeta told Reuters the sting against his clients amounted to entrapment.

An undercover DEA source posing as a member of a Colombian drugs cartel was introduced to Baktash by a friend of the Akashas. The friend "was also a DEA agent," Ombeta said.

The DEA would not discuss details of its operatives or informants. Ombeta said the man pretending to work for the Colombians was a Moroccan national who had been jailed for a drug trafficking offence in the United States. Peppering his conversation with talk of a private jet and ambitious business plans, the man cultivated an image of opulence, Ombeta said.

Soon after their first meeting, the Moroccan man gave 3 million Kenyan shillings ($32,870) in cash to the Akashas as a goodwill gesture, Ombeta said. "He was flashing money so they could see this was someone who has money and is ready to buy."

The Moroccan man told Baktash Akasha that the Colombians wanted to buy high-quality heroin to sell in the United States, according to prosecutors. In one of many conversations recorded by the DEA, Baktash allegedly said that he could get them unlimited amounts of "white crystal," a reference to pure heroin.

Weeks later, Baktash allegedly told one of his Pakistani suppliers that the Colombians wanted 500 kg (1,100 lb) of "carat diamond," a reference to high quality heroin.

The supplier replied the heroin would cost them about $12,000 per kg and said that he had 420 kg of pure heroin.

"THE SULTAN"

As the DEA source was negotiating with the Akashas, the CMF naval force made a series of seizures in Indian Ocean waters off Kenya, Tanzania and the island of Zanzibar. The U.S. extradition document links at least one of these shipments to Hussein.

In April 2014, CMF forces boarded a traditional wooden dhow and found a tonne of heroin stashed among cement bags. That was roughly equal to all the heroin that 11 east African governments had seized between 1990 and 2009, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.

Then in July, for the first time ever, Kenya's navy made a major heroin seizure. Tipped off by a Western agency, it intercepted a rusting vessel that had set off from Pakistan. A week after they towed the ship into port in Mombasa, officials discovered nearly 800 kg of heroin in its diesel tank.

According to a U.S. extradition document, the man responsible for that second shipment was Gulam Hussein. U.S. court documents allege Hussein told undercover DEA sources he had transported "tons of kilograms of heroin by sea."

Undeterred by the seizure, Hussein, the Akashas and Goswami allegedly set about agreeing a deal on their upcoming shipment.

In mid-September, Baktash told the Moroccan man that a heroin supplier known as "The Sultan" had sent a representative with a one kilogram sample of heroin for the Colombians to test, court documents allege.

The shipment arrived in Kenya in October. Goswami allegedly told the Moroccan that he was working with Baktash to get another 500 kg.

POLYGRAPH TESTS

As the sting neared its end, the DEA and Kenyan authorities grew worried that word would leak.

Junior officers in the Kenyan police earn less than $200 a month. Such low pay helps fuel corruption, according to Kenyan officials. "Drugs barons have bought some of our officers and this is very sad," Mombasa County Commissioner Nelson Marwa told journalists in December. "We have information that police vehicles and ambulances are being used to transport drugs within (Mombasa) county and the coast region."

The Mombasa police rejected this claim. It said Marwa's statement was "shocking" but promised to conduct an internal investigation.

In the days leading up to the raid, Kenya's Anti-Narcotics Unit (ANU) suddenly transferred nearly 30 police officers, including some of its own men, away from the Mombasa region.

Local media linked the redeployments to the Akasha bust, saying most of the policemen were moved because of corruption fears. Hamisi Masa, the ANU chief, told Kenyan press he was behind the transfers, but called it a "regular" move.

Fearful of possible corruption, the DEA has in the last three years helped set up a special "vetted" unit within the ANU. Officers who want to join the inner circle have to pass extra checks including polygraph tests. Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA) carries out similar vetting and due diligence checks with local security officials. It is also beefing up its Kenya team.

THE RAID

In early November, Baktash's brother Ibrahim allegedly delivered 98 kg of heroin to the man from the Colombian cartel in Nairobi, unaware that the DEA was clandestinely recording their meetings. A couple of days later, he allegedly delivered 1 kg of methamphetamines.

Soon after, Ibrahim left Nairobi on a commercial flight to Mombasa, and the DEA and ANU made their move.

ANU officers handpicked several regular policemen to provide back-up and then hid in a mansion opposite the Akasha home. At about 1.30 am on Nov. 10, they launched their raid, arresting the men and confiscating laptops, tablets, mobile phones and cars.

"There was no resistance ... just shock that they had been caught completely unaware," said one member of the Anti-Narcotics Unit.

Ombeta, the Kenyan lawyer representing the four men, said Baktash has told him that he suspects his estranged brother Tinta collaborated with the DEA.

The four men have also told their lawyer that their initial mistrust of the Moroccan man had receded as he splashed more and more cash around.

The men deny any involvement in drug trafficking, Ombeta said, but were tempted by the sight of all that money.